Poems

The Holidays (Not Really A Poem But...)

"Merry Christmas and a happy new year"
Well that's hard to do when you wake up early to little step siblings screaming for presents, and they get all sorts of kid stuff but you get one thing - a bag, and its girly but oh well, it holds stuff. You goto your grandma's aka "the farm" and everyone's there, you, your siblings, step siblings, mom, stepdad, some cousins, grandma, and an aunt and uncle. The presents are passed out before anyone is allowed to open them, and besides the people with cameras, no one really cares what you got. Some years, you may not know what your sister got till three days later when they take it out to mess with a little. At the farm, you get pajama pants and a sketchbook. And then you go home.
After that, your dad comes over from Indiana and gives you presents, clothes, and makes small talk with you and your siblings. Eventually he always gets around to your relationship with Jesus and your sister, who's been on the phone the whole time texting some boy, looks up and flat out tells him that she, a 13 yr old, has no time for church and doesn't want to wake up that early to bother. Your brother makes jokes, and it seems that either he might or might not go to church, to your dad at least, you know he doesn't but he doesn't want to let his dad down. And you, you can't have a decent conversation about god with him, not in front of your atheists siblings, and usually this goes one for a few hours before he says by and leaves. This year was different though, you wrapped presents for you're aunt and cousins, so he drove you over. You tried to get your sibling to go but they "didn't want to" and were "to hungry" and would stay behind to eat.
At you're aunts, you hand out presents and you get some from you're cousins. You're boyfriend comes over and you're uncle even tells your dad how good he is. The house talks about god more freely, and after your boyfriend leaves they talk for about an hour, and it isn't awkward, but you're kinda left out of the conversation.
When you finally get back home, your dad leaves and you go to your room. The rest of the day is boring and you don't talk to a single soul. Everyone else goes back to the farm but not you, you know what would happen when you do.
Every time you go to the farm, its the same. Every year for the holidays, you go to the same museum, either a few days before or the day after Christmas, and on new years you sit around the TV till the ball drops. It wouldn't be so bad if you could really hang with your cousins but you can't, any loud noise give an a headache so while they sit around a table and play cards for hours you have to sit silently on the living room floor. This isn't a problem usually in the summer, when I was warm outside and you could stay out and scream and roughhouse all you wanted, but in winter that's not possible. Its to cold so you have to sit silently inside, and any noise and they tell you to go outside and run off your energy but no one wants to do that. On new years, there are snacks and drinks that are 90% gone by midnight and after the ball drops, everyone sneaks the last of the food before being yelled at to go to bed. The ball rips, then the kids leave and sleep. No fun, no interaction, no one cares.
The holidays.